Clinics see spike in patients because of coronavirus, offer virtual exams

SEATTLE — At Zoom Care in downtown Seattle employees are seeing a big increase in patients.

Every time someone walks in the door they have to fill out a COVID-19 questionnaire, which asks if patients have a cough, shortness of breath or fever.

"Lots of people are coming in worried about this,” said Gretchen Todd, Zoom Care physician assistant.

This time of year, Todd is always busy. Lately, the coronavirus has made her job even more demanding.

"If we have a person come in with a fever, cough, shortness of breath, we try to isolate their exposure to everyone in the clinic, get them home safely or get them to the hospital, if they need to be in the hospital, and then, after they leave, we take a sanitizer and clean the entire clinic,” said Todd.

To keep viruses from spreading, Multicare is promoting their virtual clinic.

"If someone has the high risk concern for the COVID-19 or the coronavirus and are not emergent, they should be taking advantage of that virtual care opportunity because it allows them to get the questions answered but also not be out and about in the community,” said Multicare Chief Medical Officer Mark Mariani, MD.

Using the virtual clinic, people go through basic questions online.

Once they’re done, a doctor responds typically in about 10 minutes.

"We want this to be the first point of entry and, if they screen positive, we'll talk with the department and then really get them the appropriate place for care,” said Stephanie Cowan, Multicare Virtual Health Clinical Care Director.

Monday more than 100 people took Multicare’s online exams, which is four-times more than normal.

Multicare hopes their e-visits serve as a great tool to start treating patients while also keeping the community safe.

Because of the coronavirus, currently https://www.multicare.org/virtualcare/ .

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